Driving from Muscat, the capital city of Oman, to the city of Nizwa was my first time to see Middle East desert environment, I was shocked to witness how dry of the landscape could be, all red lands and dark mountains looked like they had been burned by fire with no single tree or a sign of life except fast driving cars on the road. The desert environment was far worse than deserts in China or Uzbekistan. Then I started to saw communities in the valley along the dry rivers called “Wadi” at first, I understood that the villages survived by seasonal water from the river, but when I visited these villages, it was falaj system that supplied water to the communities.

During my Oman trip I saw Omani Aflaj in many towns and villages, but for UNESCO listed ones, I only saw Falaj Daris in Nizwa which was the biggest falaj in the country and its water sources were just outside the city center on the way along old Nizwa – Bahla road. However, I could not see falaj sources as they were underground, also aboveground were incredibly dry riverbed and full of rocks and gravels that seem to be impossible to have water tunnels underneath such unfriendly terrain. Falaj first appeared aboveground in the newly created park just outside Nizwa next to the dry river. Its appearance was like a small canal with stone wall that covered with mortar. The canal continued into the residential zone and very green plantations in the city passing mosque and a small fort. Unfortunately that Falaj Daris did not match my expectation despite its size and very sophisticated water channels as I had seen the much simpler and smaller one at Misfat Al Abreen where I could see how community managed the water for households and agriculture as well as the separation zone of male and female areas in washing pool area, so I expected some similarities at Nizwa, but Nizwa’s falaj seem to be mainly for agriculture and that made Falaj Daris to be looked like just a normal irrigation system, nevertheless I really enjoyed the plantations along the falaj with interesting plant like date, banana, alfalfa and grass to protect soil and conserve water against desert heat.

For me Omani Aflaj is another good example of World Heritage Site that its outstanding value cannot be seen easily, as there were no visual differences of falaj and other normal irrigation system in any part of the world, if I never had seen a fascinating German documentary about an Omani village that was facing a drying falaj and had to send people to find new water springs along the ancient underground falaj tunnel and its open access shafts many times, I would probably ranked this World Heritage Site among the lowest. From the documentary I found out that Aflaj was fascinating, and I really admired ancient people who dug a complex of tunnels to link springs into the community. Also, falaj did show me how important of water in the desert environment as a key of urban settlement in Oman especially for the city like Nizwa as well as the human abilities to survive and create perfect environment for living and farming, so Omani Aflaj were truly an interesting World Heritage Site of Oman.